Greenlight Media To Launch $100M Animation Fund

Berlin-based Greenlight Media and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein are about to launch the second Berlin Animation Film fund (BAF) to raise US$100 million for the production of up to five international animation features. Greenlight's COO Nickolaus Weil said that BAF II will fund two $30 million-budgeted features from U.S. studios and three $10 million-budgeted features from European-based companies. The studios working on the films have not yet been announced. However, Greenlight president Andre Sikojev said, "The U.S. partners with whom we are preparing the U.S. projects were already in Berlin and introduced to [German animation studio] Hahn Film, and it is likely that they will also establish a small production unit here." The first BAF in 1999 funded the feature SIMSALAGRIMM: THE MOVIE and the TV series MEADOWLANDS, THE @DVENTURERS, BOB'S BEACH and ACAREINS.